Tuesday, 13 December 2016

In front of an audience of around 200 people, including specially invited guests from a local nursing home, the hour long concert was enjoyed by all, and is a much valued annual event. Both the learners and our music teachers, Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins, give up an awful lot of their spare time to rehearse for the event, supported by our peripatetic music teachers and even ex-Kepier pupils who come back to help out.

Mr Hall, Head of Music at Kepier, said "as always, it was a wonderful night and a lovely way to allow our young people to perform in front of a live audience. For many of them, it was the first time they had done this, and they should be very proud of the excellent performances they gave."

In front of an audience of around 200 people, including specially invited guests from a local nursing home, the hour long concert was enjoyed by all, and is a much valued annual event. Both the learners and our music teachers, Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins, give up an awful lot of their spare time to rehearse for the event, supported by our peripatetic music teachers and even ex-Kepier pupils who come back to help out.

Mr Hall, Head of Music at Kepier, said "as always, it was a wonderful night and a lovely way to allow our young people to perform in front of a live audience. For many of them, it was the first time they had done this, and they should be very proud of the excellent performances they gave."

In front of an audience of around 200 people, including specially invited guests from a local nursing home, the hour long concert was enjoyed by all, and is a much valued annual event. Both the learners and our music teachers, Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins, give up an awful lot of their spare time to rehearse for the event, supported by our peripatetic music teachers and even ex-Kepier pupils who come back to help out.

Mr Hall, Head of Music at Kepier, said "as always, it was a wonderful night and a lovely way to allow our young people to perform in front of a live audience. For many of them, it was the first time they had done this, and they should be very proud of the excellent performances they gave."

In front of an audience of around 200 people, including specially invited guests from a local nursing home, the hour long concert was enjoyed by all, and is a much valued annual event. Both the learners and our music teachers, Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins, give up an awful lot of their spare time to rehearse for the event, supported by our peripatetic music teachers and even ex-Kepier pupils who come back to help out.

Mr Hall, Head of Music at Kepier, said "as always, it was a wonderful night and a lovely way to allow our young people to perform in front of a live audience. For many of them, it was the first time they had done this, and they should be very proud of the excellent performances they gave."

As always, in the last week of our Christmas term Kepier hosted a free concert for the community, with carols and Christmas songs performed by both our school orchestra and choir.

In front of an audience of around 200 people, including specially invited guests from a local nursing home, the hour long concert was enjoyed by all, and is a much valued annual event. Both the learners and our music teachers, Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins, give up an awful lot of their spare time to rehearse for the event, supported by our peripatetic music teachers and even ex-Kepier pupils who come back to help out.

Mr Hall, Head of Music at Kepier, said "as always, it was a wonderful night and a lovely way to allow our young people to perform in front of a live audience. For many of them, it was the first time they had done this, and they should be very proud of the excellent performances they gave."

A group of our Year 11 learners have been sitting their Hospitality exams at Kepier, part of which involves them planning, preparing, cooking and serving a three course meal in a restaurant environment. This is the first time that we have undertaken this type of exam for our learners.

To achieve this, they set up our library as a dining room, and served the meal to 32 guests over two nights, consisting of family and Kepier staff. As you can see from the attached photos, the evenings were a huge success, and the food was of a standard you would happily pay for in any restaurant.

Mrs Dawla, Head of Technologies here at Kepier, said "the learners worked really hard, not just in the cooking and serving of the food but in ensuring that they created a true restaurant feel to the evening. They should be very proud of themselves."

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

As part of UNISON's annual national
celebration day for all school support staff, I along with the branch's Local
Organiser, Jo Spires, visited the catering staff at Kepier Academy. Mrs Cooper,
the Principal, invited us to meet with the catering staff, whom she called
'wonderful'. Children learn better if they are provided with a decent and
healthy meal. Over three weeks, the branch had visited each of the 117 schools
across the city and meeting Kepier catering staff was the highlight of the week
and a great note on which to end our visits. Thank you to the lovely ladies we
met and to all of the Kepier school support staff for the fantastic work done
in making the place a safe and healthy environment in which children can
achieve their greatest potential.

Monday, 21 November 2016

As ever, Kepier learners and staff did their utmost to raise money for Children In Need on Friday gone.

Organised by Miss Allen, but with the learners helping out both before and on the day, we managed to raise over £1300 through a variety of events, including having a non uniform day, face painting, a hair and nail beauty parlour,a raffle for a giant jar of sweets, asking year 11 learners to donate as they went out for their lunch and a photo booth where learners (and staff!) could get dressed up and have their photos taken, and purchase a copy.

Miss Allen said "I'm so proud of the efforts made by all the learners who helped with the organisation and running of the day, plus the generosity of learners and staff who helped us raise this fabulous amount."

Friday, 18 November 2016

This week at Kepier our learners have been taking part in 'Inter Faith Week', the aim of which is to increase understanding between people of non religious and religious beliefs to celebrate diversity. At Kepier during Inter Faith week our learners have been involved in a number of events. On Monday we had a visitor in to create Diya lamps with our year 7 and 8 learners to build on their knowledge of Hinduism; on Monday afternoon our year 11 dancers, and a group of year 7 learners learnt how to Bollywood dance, and on the Tuesday the Gideons were invited in to take our year 7 assembly and present our learners with a bible. The Wednesday involved the Islamic Diversity Centre visiting Kepier, to discuss the religion of Islam and topical issues seen in the media. Our year 7 learners were all involved in workshops, whilst year 9 had a group assembly with a question and answer session.

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Our Design and Technologies teacher, Miss Holden, has been working with learners from across our year groups on a project to show them how to run a small business, designing, making and selling to other learners and staff a range of products.

With Christmas fast approaching, they are now taking orders for these items, including an engraved wooden box, which for only £20 includes reindeer feed, Santa's magic key, chocolate nibbles, a personalised letter to Santa and a poem. As well as these, they are also offering other Christmas goodies such as baubles, personalised mugs, Santa magic keys, and so on.

Miss Holden said "this project has been invaluable in not just allowing the young people to design and make these products, but also teach them the importance of pricing up products against costs to ensure a small profit is made and we can continue to run the project in future years."

Pictured with an example of the engraved wooden box and the personalised letter and poem are learners Leah, Lauren, Hannah and Megan.

Tuesday, 8 November 2016

The Siglion Sunderland City Half Marathon and 10K will take place on Sunday 7th May 2017 at Keel Square after a successful move into the City centre in 2016.

The Start and Finish will be at Keel Square for a second year, with superb public transport links close by.

Whether you set your sights on a PB, reach your fundraising target, or just take in the atmosphere at this flat and fast Spring Half Marathon & 10K, you will receive a bespoke medal, goody bag and technical t-shirt at the finish.

Why not make the most of the EARLY BIRD OFFER, which will be available until Nov 30th 2016? Entry Prices will rise on December 1st by £3.

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

One of our Year 9 classes have been looking to improve their grasp of French by becoming pen pals with a school in Saint-Nazaire in Brittany. With the help of our Head of Languages Miss Macey, our learners contacted the school telling them about their lives and what life is like at Kepier.

The school in Saint-Nazaire sent letters back, thanking the learners for ours and telling them about how life at school in France differs to over here.

In the next term, we will be writing back to explain our plans for Christmas, and the learners will be telling them how they plan to celebrate and asking how it differs from in France, thereby getting a better understanding of the cultural differences between the two countries.

Tuesday, 20 September 2016

With the help of funding from The RFU, we have been able to purchase new equipment, and they, together with Houghton Rugby Club, have supplied us with a coach to come in once a week for a morning, and after school to work with our learners, develop their rugby skills and increase participation. Houghton Rugby Club are also helping to run our Central Venue League each Thursday, covering all age groups and involving schools from across the region. In the last school year we had 100 learners from Kepier, both boys and girls, participating in the Central Venue League, and with this further support are expecting this to increase in 2016/17. This league also of course allows other schools to participate in competitive matches, played both at Houghton Rugby Club and on our dual purpose 3g surface, which was part funded by The RFU, together with The Football Foundation and the school itself.

Mr Archibald, specialist Rugby coach from our PE Department, said "the support of The RFU and Houghton Rugby Club has proved vital in the ongoing development of rugby at Kepier, which I hope will continue to allow more young people to get into the sport."

On Monday 11th July, Kepier hosted its annual summer concert, featuring learners from across all our year groups performing orchestral arrangements of classical pieces and modern music, with songs from our school choir, in front of an audience of around 200 of their families and friends.

The vast majority of those involved had never played an instrument prior to coming to Kepier, and it is testimony to the hard work of Mr Hall and Mrs Jiggins of our music department that they can put on an event that is much loved by those attending.

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Kepier held its annual summer show over two nights in the last week of the 2015/16 school year. With around 80 learners taking part or involved in the show, it is much loved by all those attending, around 200 on each night. This years show was 'Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat', and the performances by all on stage were as amazing as the title!